Discuss: does director David Leitch have the best cast of 2022 with “Bullet Train”? Because on top of starring Brad Pitt and a slew of interesting, top-shelf actors, the action thriller just added Sandra Bullock to the cast. The movie—which centers on five assassins who find themselves on a Japanese bullet train, realizing that their individual assignments are not unrelated to the others—also stars Joey King, Andrew Koji, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Masi Oka, Michael Shannon, Lady Gaga, Logan Lerman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Karen Fukuhara, and rapper Bad Bunny.
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An adaptation of Kotaro Isaka‘s novel of the same name, the book is a darkly satirical thriller where the assassins are competing for a suitcase full of money. Who will make it to the last station? And maybe more importantly, who is playing who? Well, the book’s official synopsis gives you some of the clues about the story’s most prominent players:
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Nanao, nicknamed Lady Bird—the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world”—boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase—and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince,” with the looks of an innocent schoolboy and the mind of a viciously cunning psychopath, is also in the mix and has history with some of the others. Risk fuels him, as does a good philosophical debate . . . like, is killing really wrong? Chasing the Prince is another assassin with a score to settle for the time the Prince casually pushed a young boy off of a roof, leaving him comatose.
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Unfortunately, none of the stories so far, tell you who is who, but presumably, Pitt is Nanoa, Tangerine and Lemon are, Henry and Beetz, and maybe Taylor-Johnson or Bullock round out the final two? All of it is decidedly unclear.
What we do know is that dark satirical thriller where violence and laughs clash sound like the perfect gig for David Leitch known for “Deadpool 2” and “Atomic Blonde.” Bullock and Pitt have never worked alongside each other despite their superstardom. She recently appeared in “Bird Box” for Netflix and has “Lost City of D” and an untitled Nora Fingscheidt Project on deck.
Zak Olkewicz (“Lights Out“) is writing the script, and filming started in November 2020, so arguably the picture could be finished in 2021, but doesn’t it scream summer tentpole movie 2022 when COVID is (nervous laughter) totally gone, and movie theaters are at full capacity again? Dare to dream. [Deadline]